Brothers' Water.

WRITTEN IN MARCH,

WHILE RESTING ON THE BRIDGE AT THE FOOT OF BROTHERS'
WATER.

HE cock is crowing,

THE

The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter,

The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest

Are at work with the strongest;
The cattle are grazing,

Their heads never raising;

There are forty feeding like one!

Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill

On the top of the bare hill;

The ploughboy is whooping-anon—anon
There's joy in the mountains;

There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,

Blue sky prevailing ;

The rain is over and gone!

William Wordsworth.

2

Brough.

BROUGH BELLS.

CONCERNING these bells at Brough, there is a tradition that they were given by one Brunskill, who lived upon Stanemore, in the remotest part of the parish, and had a great many cattle. One time it happened that his bull fell a-bellowing, which in the dialect of the country is called cruning, this being the genuine Saxon word to denote that vociferation. Thereupon he said to one of his neighbors, "Hearest thou how loud this bull crunes? If these cattle should all crune together, might they not be heard from Brough hither?" He answered, "Yea." "Well then," says Brunskill, "I'll make them all crune together." And he sold them all, and with the price thereof he bought the said bells.

"ON

N Stanemore's side, one summer eve,
John Brunskill sate to see

His herds in yonder Borrodale
Come winding up the lea.

"Behind them, on the lowland's verge,
In the evening light serene,
Brough's silent tower, then newly built
By Blenkinsop, was seen.

"Slowly they came in long array,
With loitering pace at will;

At times a low from them was heard,
Far off, for all was still.

"The hills returned that lonely sound
Upon the tranquil air:

The only sound it was which then
Awoke the echoes there.

"Thou hear'st that lordly bull of mine,
Neighbor,' quoth Brunskill then :
'How loudly to the hills he crunes,
That crune to him again!

"Think'st thou if yon whole herd at once

Their voices should combine,

Were they at Brough, that we might not
Hear plainly from this upland spot
That cruning of the kine?'

"That were a crune indeed,' replied
His comrade, which, I ween,
Might at the Spital well be heard,
And in all dales between.

"Up Mallerstang to Eden's springs,
The eastern wind upon its wings
The mighty voice would bear;
And Appleby would hear the sound,
Methinks, when skies are fair.'

"Then shall the herd,' John Brunskill cried,

'From yon dumb steeple crune;

And thou and I, on this hillside,

Will listen to their tune

NERAL LIBRARY University of MICHIGAN

BROUGH.

"So, while the merry Bells of Brough
For many an age ring on,
John Brunskill will remembered be,

When he is dead and gone,

"As one who, in his latter years,

Contented with enough,

Gave freely what he well could spare
To buy the Bells of Brough.'

"Thus it hath proved: three hundred years

Since then have passed away,

And Brunskill's is a living name

Among us to this day."

"More pleasure," I replied, "shall I

From this time forth partake, When I remember Helbeck woods, For old John Brunskill's sake.

"He knew how wholesome it would be,
Among these wild, wide fells

And upland vales, to catch, at times,
The sound of Christian bells; -

"What feelings and what impulses
Their cadence might convey

To herdsman or to shepherd-boy,
Whiling in indolent employ

The solitary day;

"That, when his brethren were convened

To meet for social prayer,
He too, admonished by the call,
In spirit might be there;

"Or when a glad thanksgiving sound,
Upon the winds of heaven,
Was sent to speak a nation's joy,
For some great blessing given, -

"For victory by sea or land,
And happy peace at length;
Peace by his country's valor won,
And stablished by her strength;

"When such exultant peals were borne
Upon the mountain air,

The sound should stir his blood, and give An English impulse there."

Such thoughts were in the old man's mind,
When he that eve looked down
From Stanemore's side on Borrodale,
And on the distant town.

And had I store of wealth, methinks,
Another herd of kine,

John Brunskill, I would freely give,
That they might crune with thine.

Robert Southey.